Thorin Klosowski

The next time you plan a vacation, Time recommends you stop trying to stretch it out as long as possible and instead make short trips packed with memorable moments.

Time's argument is two-fold. The first idea is that you'll enjoy and remember a short vacation better because the individual moments will feel more important. Things you experience on the last day of a vacation will be enhanced because they're on the last day. Time points to a theory that our memories are dominated by three factors: the peak (for positive events), the nadir (for negative events), and the end of an experience. When vacations are shortened, those end moments are compacted and make the experience easier to remember.

The other part is the simple aspect of money. If you're stretching out a vacation to two weeks, but you're sacrificing events like dinner or activities along the way, you're trading intensity for time. You might be missing out on some of the most memorable parts of a trip because you try to make the vacation last longer.